I was going to mention not washing your chicken, but the comments nail it. Don't wash your chicken, the bacteria just spreads around your kitchen.
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025
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I remember watching an interview with some chef once. They were asked what common things they would see when they're at someone's house that would keep them from eating, just out of fear. Washing raw chicken in the sink was the instant answer. It splashes everywhere and is very likely to contaminate half your kitchen.
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I used to have a roommate that would wash her veggies and meat in the soapy dishwasher freaking disgusting
So that's why cilantro tastes like that?
I'm confused what they think they're washing off. If you don't believe the cooking kills the germs then you're not cooking it right (or are confused). If you think it's something that won't come off with cooking like dirt or dust, then, ew, why are you getting chicken from somewhere that gets it covered in dirt or dust?
I’m confused what they think they’re washing off.
A LOT of kitchen practices in families are passed-down traditions, with a lot of people not really knowing why they do the things they do.
My Filipino family-in-law washes their cuts of meat, which yeah is entirely unnecessary and I always wondered why they do it, then I traveled to the Philippines and saw the town where they lived, and most of the local butchers hang fresh cuts of meat up on hooks, uncovered, right next to busy roads and sidewalks.
I genuinely don't know how everyone there hasn't died of acute food poisoning from the unrefrigerated meats in high heat and humidity, but they at least like to wash off the road grime and dust.
It can also help tenderize the meat (via vinegar or lemon/lime); I tend to find that, when "nondeveloped" countries talk about washing their meat, it means in a vinegar/citrus solution while "developed" countries quite literally mean just plain water.
Butcher pubes
I don't know what this text is going on about. People don't wash the 'white shit' off chicken. Some people think that washing chicken (or poultry in general) reduces the chance of cross contamination due to salmonella. In reality it makes it more likely for cross contamination because it splatters all around your sink and surrounding areas.
It also doesn't make it taste bland. It's just useless.
My guess is that Anon made an assumption about what they were attempting to do while washing it off and that night didn't put a lot of effort into the cooking and also expected it to taste bad.
Sometimes it’s the bacteria that kills you sometimes it’s the poop of the bacteria that kills you. The latter won’t matter if you cook it well or not. But yeah generally it’s useless to wash chicken.
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politics? earth shape? religion? nah, i like to argue about washing or not the chicken when preparing it
washing or not the chicken
I do not think I have ever washed any chicken I have prepared, EVER
The only time I wash chicken is after cooking it, and when I drop it on the floor and thing "eh, I can still eat this"
me neither (ive never prepared any chicken)
me neither (ive never washed any thing)
Me neither (ive never eaten any thing)
Me neither (I've never)
Me
I watched a cooking video a few years ago about cooking a whole chicken. In the video it was said "we're not going to wash the chicken". I thought just the idea of washing a chicken was strange, so I checked the comments. It was a trainwreck of people being freaked out and disgusted by how she didn't wash the chicken.
I had to search through several forums and articles afterwards to confirm that I wasn't insane, and that I hadn't lived my whole life with disgusting food habits. But the topic of washing a chicken before you cook it is a strangely divided subject.
It’s recommended you DON’T wash your chicken because that just throws bacteria around your kitchen.
Cook it thorougly. Use a meat thermometer to be sure and you’ll be fine.
I believe that's a myth. If you cook thoroughly, you don't need to worry about bacteria. Why would it matter if its being moved around then?
There sure are plenty of 'under no circumstances' articles and testimonials parroting each other.
Washing removes the gooey protein film on the surface, which otherwise ends up cooking into a egg-white-like membrane.
You can also wipe it with a paper towel to accomplish the same.
You should, at the very least, always dry your chicken to allow the surface to brown properly. Otherwise you end up with the hospital patient pale white.
- reading around, it's spreading the bacteria from the chicken to the environment thats the problem, so I was wrong there. Paper towel it is from now on.
Yep, you nailed it in your edit. We do exactly that - dry it off with a few paper towels, then roast. As long as you can resist devouring the paper towels or dragging them all over the house (I'm looking at my sleeping dogs as I type this), it's safe.
It’s recommended you DON’T wash your chicken because that just throws bacteria around your kitchen.
I believe that’s a myth. If you cook thoroughly, you don’t need to worry about bacteria. Why would it matter if its being moved around then?
I think they mean that if you wash the chicken before cooking you might propel the not-yet-dead bacteria around your kitchen, which is worse than putting it all in the oven together to kill it.